Big Mountain Camp 2014

Our Big Mountain Camp turned out as a "What to do in dangerous conditions camp". Even when we had high danger of avalanches and bad weather, we realized an unforgettable weekend with Freeride Center Stubai.

Mounting Splitboards

The kick off was on friday morning, picking boards, assembling, safety meeting and off to some splitboard touring

The abundant snowfall in the recent days, the wind and the warm temperatures had been increasing the avalanche danger so far that even the road was closed to the Stubai Glacier. So we went to Seeblasspitze to check out the conditions and the snow layering.

We started strongly motivated and Patrick, the mountain guide and owner of the Freeride Center Stubai, shares his knowledge to significantly increase our mountain safety. Starting with the metamorphosis of the snow, further to the danger signs in the snow to a solid slip-block test, we had the opportunity to learn a lot about safety in the mountains, especially in tricky conditions.

Of course we also had fun at the descent.

In the nice hut we satisfied our hunger and Patrick has more information for us, presented on the latest tecnology.

On the second day we went to South Tyrol, in the beautiful Schmirntal. Here, the knowledge has been deepened and strengthened in practice. Keep an eye on what is above you, get to know the estimated dimensions of avalanches and put your ascent trail and of course your departure accordingly. Reduce your risk, but be able to having fun also in critical conditons. Do you have a bad feeling in your stomach, then you'd better turn around.

Shortly after noon we were back in the village square at Neustift, more precisely in the mountain guide office of the Freeride Center Stubai. Now it went on with a photo presentation in which the focus was on the different avalanche types and warning signs.

On the third day the glacier was open and because of the "lack of riding" at the previous days, we use the large amounts of fresh snow of the Stubai Glacier to test the splitboards in powder. After a few runs in the dusty white, we saw how an avalanche of about 50 meters broad and 50 cm high was triggert

Diagnosis of the situation: The wind had deposited large amounts of drift snow, two skiers have moved away from the slopes in relatively steep terrain, the cracks in the snowpack have spread to the "hotspot" and about 30 feet away from them the slab went off. Nobody was harmed, but we got ​​aware of what can happen and how quickly it can happen. The avalanche itself was slowl due to the high weight of the warm blanket of snow beneath the cold fresh snow.

After further fun in the powder we enjoy dinner, talking about God and the world and then make our way home .

For anyone interested, the next camp (Splitboard Touring FSH) will be held from 3/9/2014 to 3/13/2014 at the Franz Senn Hut, more info can be found here.

Thanks to all who joined the event, especially to Pia and Miriam, who sweetened our weekend beeing the only women.

We also look forward to the development of the Team Split Tyrol or in short " Shred Pow Lines in Tirol" .